First gig at Nectar's and earliest circulating tape (May be the first taped gig). With Marc Daubert (who was a member of the band at the time, though only briefly so). *Includes band introduction. **With the Dude of Life on vocals.

After reviewing 10/?? (or 11/03 as I assumed), listening to this one was a breeze. The sound is hugely improved, and this could easily be attributed to the fact it is a SBD. The audience is alive and rowdy during most of this show, especially during the peaks which is a nice touch.

I'll just start this off by saying that Scarlet Begonias > Fire > Fire On The Mountain is very clever, and very Phish-y. Throwing the unsuspecting audience for a loop right from the get-go. Scarlet features Trey on vocals, and he does the song justice. The crowd is really into it, and that comes across nicely even on a SBD. Just goes to show how intimate these first shows were. The song has a funky feel during the lyrics, and the jam really livens the place up. Once they head back into the lyrics the crowd gives its loudest reaction for possibly the entire show.

That slams into Fire, and it sounds as if Fishman has at least 4 arms (more on this later). When they head from the jam back into the lyrics, there is a slight full band misstep, which is noticeable, but incredibly quick. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Fire on the Mountain starts off with a very spacey or loopy jam for the intro. The funkiness from Scarlet carries over nicely to this tune, even with the raging Jimi song placed in the middle. Trey reaches a great peak of "classic" Garcia shredding during the first jam which is the easy stand out from this song. The second solo sounds more like the loopy intro, and is very Garcia-esque.

This floats into the reggae beat of Makisupa Policeman, which seems like a real natural segue when listening. Since Camel Walk the month before was cut short, this is the first full Phish song on tape I do believe. The keywords were "woke up in the morning, smoke a little herb.. woke up in the afternoon, smoke a lil more herb." Followed quickly by a shout out by Trey to Ras Tafari! Mike is very prominent during this song, and it is nice and refreshing to hear such a great back beat. Trey pretty much rambles the entire time about herb, and who smokes it, and all that fun stuff. He also added a "Jeff likes to play guitar, and he smoked, so now he will solo for you", followed by a less-than-amazing solo by Holdsworth.

Slave to the Traffic Light makes its first appearance, and just reminds me how much this band needs keys. Jeff is basically playing the part Page would soon be known to play, and it just doesn't work as well. Other than that, standard Slave, which is a good thing, but nothing much to write about.

Trey than makes mention that "we never go back on our word", and starts up Spanish Flea. Nice rendition, but this song begs for horns. The band is introduced and they each take a respective solo as their name is called.

Don't Want You No More, made famous by the Allman Bros Band, is another fitting song for the two guitar approach, but seriously lacked the organ the Allman's brought to the table with their cover. Halfway through this turns back to the funk displayed in the earlier Grateful Dead songs, and Trey really starts to shred as the rest of the band (led by Mike) make the segue into Cities. And the funk just continues. Many lyrical changes, my favorite of which was "a lot of ghosts, and a lot of Deadheads." Mike really shines in his playing, while Trey keeps his lively singing up.

Then we come upon "Drums". Fishman is just absolutely flailing during most of this. Very loud and boomy, so it is a bit difficult to tell if anyone else is slamming the drum set, but if I had to guess I would say it was just Fishman. This started to get really weird towards the end with a possible xylophone solo. Mike joins in on bass and they lead into McGrupp.

I mean, Skippy the Wondermouse, and the first appearance of The Dude of Life, who "had not been seen in 3 years." I wish he would have made it four or more years personally. Terrible at his attempt of singing/rapping, and it really made me miss the McGrupp lyrics, which were not even around. So I guess I am missing nothing.

Then the real show-stopper appears, and this is not the good type of show-stopper. The Dude of Life sticks around and sings Fluffhead. Or what was Fluffhead at that time. Basically just the first few minutes of Fluffhead are played, and it ends with the band somewhat jamming while the Dude screams Fluffhead over and over. Just please stop. Also notable is this song is about in double speed, and I have yet to hear one that fast since.

Eyes of the World brings around the close to the show, and is the only repeated song so far. At the very beginning I had to do a double-take at my computer, as I could have sworn they were starting up McGrupp/Skippy again. Trey is on lead vocals and it is a VERY slow version. Treys first solo is incredibly solid, and his second solo brings around more of the Garcia-esque shredding. I can see why they wanted to stop playing GD songs already.

This show has a good amount of highlights. I could mention the Eyes again, and the Scarlet>Fire>Fire is fantastic. As is the Cities. Low light is without a doubt the appearance of The Dude of Life for Skippy and Fluffhead. This guy has just never won me over.